Beltway Columns Feature Superficial Analysis

How much longer do you need to fill page space with Michael Lubell's rants? (“Inside the Beltway,” APS News, August/September 2006.) The APS members deserve to get some insightful and original thought about Washington political events. What we get in Lubell’s column, instead, are sophomoric opinions.

For example, in his latest “analysis” he muses that “it’s hard to see why the Middle East should be such a focus of American foreign policy–except for our extraordinary dependence on foreign sources of oil.” I guess Lubell hasn't noticed that the Middle East is also a high foreign policy concern of the entire industrial world, due to the dependence of Europe, Japan, and China on foreign sources of oil (actually, Lubell obliquely mentions this two paragraphs later). But beyond that, the Middle East is roiling with an Islamic fundamentalist movement. I should hope we focus on that.

Is this the best “Washington Analysis and Opinion” that the APS can find to inform its critical and highly educated members? If APS can’t do better than this, then it shouldn’t do a political column at all.

Thomas J. Karr
Baltimore, Maryland


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Editor: Alan Chodos
Contributing Editor: Jennifer Ouellette
Staff Writer: Ernie Tretkoff

November 2006 (Volume 15, Number 10)

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Articles in this Issue
APS Task Force Recommends Ways to Better Serve Industrial Members
New Website Targets a Broader Audience
Fellowship Nominations Go Electronic
April Plenary Speakers Set
APS Interviews Apker Finalists
Mather, Smoot Share 2006 Nobel Prize in Physics
NRC Releases AMO Physics Report
Mass Media Fellows Reflect on Summer Science Writing Experience
NAS Study Finds Barriers Remain for Women Physicists
AIP Survey Finds Increase in Physics Degrees
Ninety Years of Optics Innovation Highlight 2006 Laser Science Meeting
ETS Announces Newly Revised GRE Test
Nine Physicists Honored at November Division Meetings
Letters
Viewpoint: Back to School
Inside the Beltway: Innovation and competitiveness is the people’s business.
The Back Page
Members in the Media
This Month in Physics History
Zero-Gravity: The Lighter Side of Science
Zero Gravity: Puzzle Answers